The Supreme Court on Friday will hear a plea by a plea filed by Dr Subhash Vijayran seeking directions to the Centre to fix time-limits for expiry of caste-based reservation in education. The matter is listed for hearing before the bench of Justices L. Nageswara Rao and S. Ravindra Bhat.
The plea states, since the 1950s, SCs/STs are being provided reservations in education. The OBCs followed suit in 2008. Compared to the pre-reservation era when people strived to gain the forward tag, today, people fight and spill blood for the backward tag. Now, we have well-off doctors, lawyers, engineers, who flaunt their backward tag to gain admissions in PG courses via reservations. Even the Institutions of National Importance (INIs) like AIIMS, NLUs, IITs, IIMs, etc. are not spared. Every year 50% of their very scarce seats are sacrificed on the altar of reservations. For how long will this continue, the plea asks.
The petitioner submits, “If left to Parliament, caste-based reservations are indeed for eternity. As rightly said by HMJ Dalveer Bhandari in Ashok Kumar Thakur: [(2008) 6 SCC, pg. 698]:
“601. In our context, one need not look past the Parliament’s affinity with extending time limits on the reservation to see that only the judiciary can put a stop to the caste-based reservation. … … History has shown that it is not politically feasible for the Parliament to say “no” to reservation – especially when caste is involved.”
In Ashok Kumar Thakur, the majority of the Hon’ble Justices were of the view that review as to the need for continuance of reservation in education should be made at the end of 5 years. [(2008) 6 SCC; Page 718, Para 671]
It has been 13 years since the Judgment. No such review has been done to date. Left to the government – no such review would ever be done. Not in a thousand years.”
The petitioner states that affirmative action by way of caste-based reservations is desirable only up to a certain limit and time, beyond which it backfires and harms national interests apart from causing reverse discrimination. “Our nation cannot be forced to carry the burden of caste-based reservations for eternity – for it would not only stagnant its growth but also divide our society permanently on caste lines.”
“In the name of equality & social justice, excellence cannot be bargained for mediocrity in perpetuity. There are better ways to ensure social justice & equality. In fact, these steps would be better than providing reservations. In reservation, a seat of a more meritorious candidate is given to a less meritorious one. This not only disempowers the reserved category candidate – as he now walks on the crutches of reservation – but also stagnates the progress of the nation. Instead, if he is made capable to compete in the open, not only will he be empowered, but also the nation will progress. Further, this would eliminate the malice of reserved seats being grabbed by the elite among the reserved class,” avers the plea.
“It is common knowledge that reservations often do not reach those for whom they are actually intended. Rather, they are grabbed by the elite among the reserved class. Today we have children of well-off and highly qualified doctors, lawyers, engineers, who flaunt their caste certificate and get admission through reservations. Is this the face of equality that we had aspired for?” it adds.
It states, “Caste-based reservations – particularly in professional courses like medical sciences, engineering, etc. at PG level – and more particularly in Institutes of National Importance (INIs) – which receive disproportionally high funding and are research institutions maintaining a world-class standard – are highly detrimental to the national interest. This is a pure squander of our scarce national resources in name of social justice.”
“It has been 74 years since our country got independence. If still, my Hon’ble Lords are of the opinion that continuance of caste-based reservations in education is in the interest of our nation, then please, by all means, dismiss this petition. But if you think that it’s time for this country to enter a reservation-free era in education, then please take the initiative. Because our Parliament would not do it – not in your lifetime – not in my lifetime – and not in the lifetimes of generations to come,” it adds.